Hi All, Question for the 'sperts: Will a cycled tank, with running filters and heaters stay 'alive' without any fish in it? If so,for how long? Should I 'feed' it? If so, with what, how much, and how often? Up till now, I've been quarantining my new fish in new water and doing about a 10% water change every day for the duration of their stay. It's worked pretty well, so far, but I've got a small, cycled tank that I want to use as a quarantine tank, and I figured, if I can keep it cycled until needed, it can only be better for the quarantined fish. Or is my thinking skewed? Sorry, that should read 'cycled' not 'cucled'
in all honesty its a tough question and you do have a good point, as in what would the bacteria feed on, logic says that the tank should be ok, that bacteria would still form and be established, perhaps feeding on the micro-organisms contained in the water? that is to say, as long as you have the filters running and the water oxygenated..
I'm not sure if I am correct but from my understanding the bacteria that colonize on your media live off the ammonia produced by fish waste, excess food, etc and will die off if this is not present so no fish, no ammonia then no or very small amounts of bacteria. But I am not sure if every now and then dropping some flakes of something in the tank would rot and produce ammonia that way supporting the bacteria. But then the by product would be nitrates, so you would have to monitor your nitrate level as this can then become toxic to the fish that gets quarantined. Would be interesting to find out for sure....
why not just keep something small and alive and healthy in there to keep the cycle going? when you want to use it as a quarantine tank you just move the current small occupants into your big tank?
That's it! :idea: Thanks @Anine Now that is one of those brilliant '... now why didn't I think of that' answers! Who says complicated problems need complicated solutions. In my defense, I believe the shrinks call it 'cognitive blindness' something so obvious that you don't see it, because you don't expect to. Nevertheless, just out of curiosity, it would be interesting to find out what the 'lifespan' of an unoccupied cycled tank, with all pumps, heaters and filters going, would be. :wondering:
I believe the easiest would be to keep the tank empty. When you need it, set it up, put in sponge filter, and dose with seachem stability or Microbelift Special blend. Why keep a tank (heater / filter / lights) going unnecessarily? If you using it as a QT, you will never "fully stock" the tank, and 9/10 times you can keep the ammonia levels down with water changes.
I agree with Zoom. If you have a sick fish in quarantine , you want to do frequent water changes anyway.
And sponge filter is easy to clean / sterilize after hospitalization. Other filters can harbor nasty stuff in them.
